Ukrainian Counterattacks Slowing Russian Offensive in East; Ukraine’s Battlefield Success No Surprise to Their National Guard Trainers in US; Biden Has To Stop Telling Putin It’s OK to Carve Up Ukraine; Zelensky Warns Putin Will invade Other Countries if Successful in Ukraine, LIVE UPDATES and MORE

By admin On Apr 23, 2022

Ukrainian counterattacks slowing Russian offensive in east:

Russian troops are pressing their offensive in the eastern Donbas region in an attempt to fully seize Ukraine’s industrial heartland but have made little headway as fierce Ukrainian counterattacks have slowed their efforts, Ukrainian and British officials said Saturday.

Russia continues to fight for full control of the Donetsk and Luhansk areas that make up the Donbas and seeks to secure “a land route between these territories and the occupied Crimea,” including by wiping out the last pocket of resistance in the besieged port city of Mariupol, Ukraine’s General Staff said.

Ukrainian forces over the past 24 hours repelled eight Russian attacks in the two regions, destroying nine tanks, 18 armored units and 13 vehicles, a tanker and three artillery systems, the General Staff said.

“Units of Rus sian occupiers are regrouping. Russian enemy continues to launch missile and bomb strikes on military and civilian infrastructure,” the General Staff said on its Facebook page. —>READ MORE HERE

Ukraine’s battlefield success no surprise to their National Guard trainers in U.S.:

Leaders in Kyiv began reaching out to U.S. military officials for help soon after Russia rolled into Ukraine following a tense build-up along the border that lasted several months. One of the first calls went out to the California National Guard.

For nearly 30 years following the demise of the Soviet Union, California’s soldiers have had a close working relationship with Ukraine as part of the National Guard‘s State Partnership Program. Maj. Gen. Dave Baldwin, the state’s senior officer, known as the adjutant general, has been friends with top Ukrainian military leaders for a decade, officials said.

“When the invasion started, they started receiving phone calls: ‘Hey, we’re getting attacked,’ followed by phone calls shortly later that said, ‘Hey, here’s what we need,’” recalled Army Gen. Daniel Hokanson, the chief of the National Guard Bureau who also serves on the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The State Partnership Program links former Warsaw Pact countries with a U.S. state. Ukraine drew the California National Guard in the lottery. The relationship was intended to help their forces operate more easily alongside NATO and provide guidance about the proper role of a military in a democracy. —>READ MORE HERE

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